When There's A Will, There's A Way
by alwaysshipping
Summary: Jake and Amy are working a case that proves to be incredibly difficult. Jake begins to get depressed, so Amy tries to help him. Progressive relationship set from the beginning of Season 1, leading to the end of Season 5. Review for more chapters! Tumblr: alwayssshipping
1. Chapter 1: The Love Doctor

Detective Jake Peralta walked out of Captain Holt's office. He'd just been assigned a case. Now normally he would be happy about this, excited to go and get working, finding all the evidence and solving the mystery. But today was different. Today he had been assigned his worst nightmare.

This wasn't the first time he'd been assigned this case. The last time, however, hadn't gone so well. The case was about the 'Love Doctor' as he (or she) called themselves. They were a murderer, who killed couples all around Brooklyn, and had been especially active in the 99th precinct. They were flamboyant in the way they left the scenes: after they killed the couple, they would leave handwritten Valentine's cards, written in a special pen that couldn't be traced, with his/her non-dominant hand so that the handwriting couldn't be recognised. The cards always said something insane about love and murder and Jake was sure they made some sort of puzzle, but he couldn't figure it out quite yet. This case was the first case he had worked with Detective Amy Santiago. They had spent months working the case, following all the clues and evidence, but eventually, their quarry just disappeared. Now they were back at it again, and this time Jake was even more determined to catch them.

"Hey Amy, we got a case." Jake walked out over to her desk.

"Ooh, what is it?" Amy asked. She loved cases, and, though she wouldn't tell anyone this, she especially liked working them with Jake.

"You're not gonna like this one," he responded, "actually, you know what, maybe I won't tell you. Yeah, I'll just take Charles instead." His teasing was incessant.

"Just spit it out Jake!" she begged, starting to get annoyed.

"Fine," Jake gave in, "it's the Love Doctor."

"Seriously? That guy? Damn this case is going to suck!" Amy realised why Jake had said she wasn't going to like the case.

Jake and Amy walked out of the precinct. They had gathered all the evidence they needed and were on their way to the most recent scene of the Love Doctor's crime. They walked over to Jake's car and got in.

"Ugh the seat's sticky!" Amy exclaimed as she sat down.

"Yeah sorry about that, I spilt orange soda there yesterday."

"Damn it, these pants are ruined. We need to stop by my place, I have to get a new pair."

"Okay if you say so." Jake said, turning at the next intersection to head towards Amy's apartment.

Amy walked out of the apartment, clothes changed and towel in hand.

"I'm not sitting on that again." she said, putting the towel down on the seat.

"Title of your sex tape! Okay, can we finally head to the crime scene?" Jake asked. Amy death stared Jake until he looked away, then the smile started breaking through. She tried to hide it, she really did, but it wouldn't go.

The apartment was a mess, but that was just part of the lifestyle of the victims. The living room, on the other hand, was perfect. Everything was tidy and in place where it was expected to be. The things out of place were the bodies. Sitting in two armchairs, holding hands, were the dead bodies of the victims, Daniel and Lili Adams. There were clear signs of death - slits across both throats - but everything had been cleaned up, not by police, but by the murderer. On the table between the two armchairs stood a Valentine's card. Jake and Amy looked at each other. They knew this was the closest thing they would get to a clue as to who the murderer was, though they still asked for the apartment to be searched completely.

Every time he read one of these, Jake would feel like his mind had been scarred. This was the 6th card he'd read since he was assigned the case the first time, and it still wasn't any less haunting. It read:

Dear Murder,

There is nothing and no one I love more than you. You complete me, you make me happy, you make me free, you give me a sense of purpose. I hope you will stick with me to the end of time, just as you have all these years.

With love,

The Love Doctor

Jake put the card back down on his desk with the other evidence he was looking over. He sighed. He had been going over the evidence for hours, hoping there would be something new, something that would change the case for the better. A single lead is all it would take for Jake to regain hope, but there was nothing.

"Got anything?" He asked Amy, hoping, pleading that something would be found.

"No, sorry." Amy responded, looking up from her pile of documents and records. She looking almost as dejected as he did. Jake's heart sank. If anyone was going to find evidence in a pile of papers, it was Amy. His mind ran wild. Surely there was some way they could find something, some method they hadn't thought of.

"AHA! I've got it!" Jake exclaimed suddenly, startling Amy.

"What is it? Have you solved it?" Jake was examining a board of photos. They all showed the security footage of the apartments where the victims had been killed. Except there was no footage because it was black. At first this had been a dead end, but then Jake noticed the time stamps of the footage. They were all the same time in the evening. He also remembered that all the victims had been with the same insurance company. This hadn't seemed like much, because it was a pretty big company, but then Jake noticed how there had been a company fundraiser held on each of the nights the couples were murdered. Each of these fundraisers had a sign-in sheet, where the people attending would sign their names in when they arrived, and out when they left. The leaving times on these sign-in sheets were all exactly one hour before the time stamps on the security footage. Jake explained all of this to Amy.

"So you're telling me," Amy said, catching on to what Jake was leading up to, "that this murderer went to these events, targeted specific couples, and then followed them and killed them."

"Yep"

"But why choose those specific people?" Amy had an epiphany. "Maybe the time they left is some sort of code!" She looked at the times. "It must be! I'm thinking that it's just a simple a=1 code. Which means that 12:15:22.005 A.M. would mean…love! Now we just have to find someone to do with love who would do this."

"Amy you're a genius!" Jake was getting excited. They were finally going to crack this case.

"Don't give me all the credit, you got most of the solve." Amy watched as Jake agreed with her, beginning to gloat. As he turned away, she smiled fondly. She couldn't help but love his antics.


	2. Chapter 2: Door Duty

They were running through the guest lists for the fundraisers, trying to find names that matched across each event. They soon discovered that there were too many of them.

"So many people went to all of the fundraisers!" Jake complained

"Well they were invested in the company, considering how it controlled their lives," Amy responded, "now get back to work or we'll never find the murderer."

They had written down a list of suspects containing the names of all the people who went to all the same fundraisers as the victims. It was long, very long, and would take a long time to investigate them all. Jake and Amy had enlisted the help of Charles and Rosa, and had divided the list in half, half for Rosa and Charles, half for Jake and Amy. They set out to their first targets, desperate for more information.

Jake and Amy's first suspect was a man by the name of Allen Chen. They arrived at his apartment and knocked on his door.

"NYPD, please open the door, we have some questions to ask you." The man opened his door, exposing himself to them. He was an unremarkable man, with no distinct or overtly noticeable features. He was wearing a pair of blue pyjamas. Now that Jake looked closely, he could see that he had bags under his eyes. Clearly he had just woken up to get the door.

"We're sorry to bother you sir," Amy started, "we'd like to ask you a few questions relating to the Love Doctor murders."

"Sure thing." The man grumbled, clearly not happy to have been woken up, but not reluctant to answer questions from the police.

"How well do you know this man." Jake asked, holding up and picture and beginning the questioning.

"I'm sorry, but I've never seen him before in my life."

"Okay then, well where were you on July 29th at 6:15pm?"

"I was at the fundraiser for my insurance company."

"Did you see anything suspicious happening there?" Amy butted in.

"No. I watched the stage when the presentation was on, went to the bar and purchased two cocktails - Bloody Mary's - and then returned to my seat after heading to the raffle table and purchasing raffle tickets so that I could contribute to the fundraiser." The man looked like he was starting to get annoyed by them, and they were getting no leads. Jake and Amy glanced at each other, silently agreeing to move on.

"Thank you for your time sir, we won't bother you any longer." Amy said.

"No worries," the man responded, "goodbye." He shut the door.

"Onto the next one!" Jake said, certain that this wouldn't take much longer and that they would be done within the day.

It took three days. Jake had no idea that there were this many people going to fundraiser events, but apparently there were. Three days was how long it took them to question every suspect. They did door duty, called people into the precinct and even pulled their suspects out of sporting matches. "Well that got us nowhere!" Amy muttered as they walked back to her car. They had been to everyone on their list and gotten no new information. They had even encountered Mlepnos as they did door duty, although he said he didn't know who they were when Jake said he recognised him. Jake was distracted by a smell of food, which was apparently called _kringel_ \- some sort of sweet yeast bread, flavored with cardamom. Jake, who insisted that he try some, said it was delicious. All they had ascertained while they completed their investigations, was that everyone they had questioned led very boring lives and were happy that way. They climbed into Amy's car, ready to head back to the precinct. Jake's phone rang. He saw it was Captain Holt and quickly answered.

"Hello sir, how's it going"

"Peralta I have called to inform you and Detective Santiago that your case has come to a close."

"WHAT?" Jake exclaimed.

"What's going on?" Amy butter in. Jake held up and finger, signifying that he would tell her when he was done.

"I called Detective Diaz back early as I had a case for her. She went out to investigate and question a perp for possession of illicit drugs. She entered the apartment upon hearing a disturbance, only to discover two people, a couple, one writing a love note, and the other attempting to murder the occupant of the residence. When the perps attempted to assault Detective Diaz, she managed to apprehend both of them. She refuses to explain how. You two are to return to the precinct now."

"We were on our way back anyway," Jake responds, "well thanks for notifying us Captain."

Jake filled Amy in on what had happened. Her reaction was the same as his.

"I can't believe this!" Amy exclaimed.

"I know, but we have to go back to the precinct now." Jake was just hiding his anger. Inside, he was fuming, but he put on a straight face as he turned back towards the precinct, not wanting Amy to see what he was really feeling.

They were behind the glass in the interrogation room. Mitchell and Adriana Volk, aka "The Love Doctor", were sitting at the table on the other side of the one-way mirror, cuffed to the table. Jake didn't know if he could go in there and interrogate them. He had failed. Twice. These guys had been the impossible challenge that he'd never been able to complete, and now they had been caught by mistake! Amy could see that he was struggling.

"I can interrogate them by myself Jake," she said, trying to help, "why don't you go and start working on the reports?"

"Thanks Amy, I don't think I'd be able to do it." Jake walked out of the room with a nod to Amy. He walked down the corridor to the bullpen and sat back down at his desk. He opened up the report, but looked at the first space he had to fill. _Time and date of arrest_. Jake mentally broke down. He had to get out of there and clear his head. Jake stood up, grabbed his bag and walked out of the precinct, ignoring a call from Charles asking where he was going.

He didn't stop walking, but he didn't have an aim. He just kept on going, trying to get as far from his problems as possible. He didn't stop walking until he reached an alley he recognised. He knew that down there was a ladder leading to a secluded rooftop. It was technically trespassing, but no one would see him climbing the ladder or on the roof, plus he was too upset to care. He walked down the alley and climbed the ladder. The roof was flat, with ledges at the side that Jake sat down with his back against. He was upset, and that was the least of it. He'd never been good at showing feelings around people; he'd just crack a joke and smile, hiding the pain behind a facade. But this was too much. His job was the thing he loved more than anything. And he couldn't even do that properly. He'd stuffed up in life in so many ways. His family life was a mess. His only friends were the Nine-Nine, and his only pride was his job, but he couldn't do that. His life was a dump.

Jake didn't know how long he sat against that wall on that roof, but it must've been ages. He was thinking over his life for the third time when he heard someone climbing the ladder. He looked up slightly, not caring that he was about to get caught, only to see Amy standing at the top of the ladder looking distressed. She noticed him and her expression changed to one of relief. She quickly walked over to him and sat down next to him.

"Hey." She said softly.


End file.
